Momoyama Art
In
the Momoyama period (1573-1603), a succession of military leaders, such as Oda
Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, attempted to bring peace and
political stability to Japan after an era of almost 100 years of warfare. Oda,
a minor chieftain, acquired power sufficient to take de facto control of the
government in 1568 and, five years later, to oust the last Ashikaga shogun. Hideyoshi
took command after Oda's assassination, but his plans to establish a hereditary
shogunate were foiled by Ieyasu, who established the Tokugawa shogunate in
1603.
Architecture
Two
new forms of architecture were developed in response to the militaristic
climate of the times: the castle, a defensive structure built to house a feudal
lord and his soldiers in times of trouble; and the shoin, a reception hall and
private study area designed to reflect the relationships of lord and vassal
within a feudal society. Himeji Castle (built in its present form 1609),
popularly known as White Heron Castle, with its gracefully curving roofs and
its complex of three subsidiary towers around the main tenshu (or keep), is one
of the most beautiful structures of the Momoyama period. The Ohiroma of Nijo
Castle (17th century) in Kyoto is one of the classic examples of the shoin,
with its tokonoma (alcove), shoin window (overlooking a carefully landscaped
garden), and clearly differentiated areas for the Tokugawa lords and their
vassals.
Painting
The
most important school of painting in the Momoyama period was that of the Kano,
and the greatest innovation of the period was the formula, developed by Kano
Eitoku for the creation of monumental landscapes on the sliding doors enclosing
a room. The decoration of the main room facing the garden of the Juko-in, a
subtemple of Daitokuji (a Zen temple in Kyoto), is perhaps the best extant
example of Eitoku's work. A massive plum tree and twin pines are depicted on
pairs of sliding screens in diagonally opposite corners, their trunks repeating
the verticals of the corner posts and their branches extending to left and
right, unifying the adjoining panels. Eitoku's screen, Chinese Lions, also in
Kyoto, reveals the bold, brightly colored style of painting preferred by the
samurai.
Hasegawa
Tohaku, a contemporary of Eitoku, developed a somewhat different and more
decorative style for large-scale screen paintings. In his Maple Screen, now in
the temple of Chishaku-in, Kyoto, he placed the trunk of the tree in the center
and extended the limbs nearly to the edge of the composition, creating a
flatter, less architectonic work than Eitoku, but a visually gorgeous painting.
His sixfold screen, Pine Wood (Tokyo National Museum), is a masterly rendering
in monochrome ink of a grove of trees enveloped in mist.
Список
літератури
Для підготовки даної роботи
були використані матеріали з сайту http://www.ibiblio.org/louvre/paint/
